


A Flight To Remember

by Rulerofthecosmosandsnails



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: F/F, its just gay, its the httyd au whoa boy, that One Flight Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-25
Updated: 2019-09-25
Packaged: 2020-10-27 19:46:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20765948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rulerofthecosmosandsnails/pseuds/Rulerofthecosmosandsnails
Summary: Edelgard's not sure how the Blade Breaker's daughter got so good at fighting dragons, but damn if she's not going to try to figure it out.





	A Flight To Remember

For the past few weeks, Edelgard von Hresvelg had been suspicious. No, not because of Lady Rhea (which came as a genuine surprise to her), and not because of Claude (an even bigger surprise, if you asked her). Not even because of the fact that Dorothea has been in the kitchen a lot and the food quality has started to degrade, no, not even that. 

What she was suspicious of, however, is where the Blade Breaker's daughter went every evening. It wasn't as if she had anyone to hang out with - well, besides the von Riegan heir, but he just seemed to drag her along to places she either didn't like or didn't think of, and she usually disappeared of their own free will - nor had she heard of any mentors offering her extra training. She surely wasn't going down the fishing pond in her free time - though Edelgard noticed she'd been going there more often than not, not that she'd tell anyone that she'd been watching her, no sir. Combine that and the sudden increase of her dragon-fighting skills, and there was a combination to make anyone in the monastery down-right skeptical. 

So, she tracked Byleth Eisner into the woods, and then further. Across the river that wound into Garreg Mach's pond, through various side-caves in the sloping hills, until the trees started to bend and turn charcoal-black. Edelgard shuddered lightly and clutched the axe that she brought tighter at the sight of yet another mangled tree, and not for the first time she wished she hadn't given Hubert the slip before following the navy-clad mercenary-in-training (seriously, did Seteth not reprimand her several times a day for her lack of uniform, or did he just give up after a while?)

Lost in her own thoughts, she barely noticed that Byleth had stopped at the edge of a steep drop-off. After a moment of deliberation, she squatted and shimmied her way down and out of sight. Edelgard carefully tip-toed to the edge of the cliff, but Byleth was nowhere in sight. She bit her lip, but lowered herself to the ground and tentatively slid her way down to the ground. 

She brushed herself off, looked around, and spotted the blue-haired woman unslinging her pack from across her back and plopping it on a rock. Edelgard squared her shoulders, lifted her head, and strutted over to the mercenary. As she walked forwards, she noticed the stink of fish emanating from her bag, and wrinkled her nose.

When she was a few feet away from her, Edelgard cleared her throat. The effect was instantaneous; Byleth nearly jolted out of her skin and whipped around, a wild look in her blank eyes and tension in her normally stoic demeanor. Her eyes only widened further when she caught sight of the white-haired heiress, and Edelgard almost preened with how satisfying the reaction was. She shook her head minutely at the thought and forced the smugness from her face, keeping her brows furrowed and her mouth in a stern frown.

Byleth abruptly shut the flap of her bag, cutting off the fish-stench. "What are you doing here, Edelgard?"

Edelgard stepped closer, forcing her to take a step back, and cleared her throat. "I want to know what's going on." Another step forward, Byleth's back was against the rock. She took a step to the side, Edelgard followed. "No one just... gets as good as you do. _Especially_someone who hadn't even heard of the monastery until they arrived." She motioned with her axe at Byleth, who was watching it warily. "So _start talking_."

The mercenary opened her mouth, backing up a couple more steps, her eyes on the weapon. With a slight start, Edelgard realized that she hadn't brought any weapons with her. It took a few tries for Byleth's mouth to get working before she started to stutter. 

"Look, there is a simple explanation for this - "

Edelgard advanced, cutting her off. "Are you training with someone?"

"No, but - "

She made another gesture with her axe, this time to the lack of armor she was wearing. "We're deep in dragon country, and you're not even wearing anything to cover up."

"That can also be explained - "

The heiress snarled. "Is there something going on? Something that not even the Archbishop doesn't know about?"

"I thought you didn't even like Lady Rhea - "

"Then what is it?" She was advancing rather quickly now, sending the mercenary to the edge of the small pond that lay in the center of the canyon. She kept a loose grip on her axe, before something green rippled at the edge of her vision, and it tightened. Her head whipped to the source of the color, but she could see nothing but the foliage that surrounded the area.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Byleth's normally pale complexion whiten. Edelgard stalked towards where she'd seen the ripple last, but something wrapped itself around her shoulder-cape and stopped her in her tracks. Baring her teeth, she whipped back to where Byleth stood, a hand white-knuckle gripping a section of her cape.

Her voice was low when she spoke, a warning. "You have to trust me when I say you don't want to do this."

She ripped her cape free from the mercenary's grip. "And why is that? You haven't given me even a smidgeon of trust since I came here - "

Edelgard was cut off by a rumbling growl from the trees behind her. She whipped around to see a hulking mass of emerald and white shooting its way towards her, before she was tackled to the side by the mercenary. The heiress hit the dirt hard, but tried to struggle to her feet with the weight of Byleth on top of her. Then, as quickly as she could blink, Byleth was up and running towards the creature, and her eyes widened at the sight of it.

A massive, snarling dragon flared its scales at her, baring its sharp yellow teeth. Its steel-like white claws dug themselves into the ground as it reared back on two legs and roared a shrill cry at her. It was only when its wings shot out - four silver, leathery ones that could have blotted out the sun - did she remember to move. 

Edelgard let out a scream of her own and stumbled to her feet, her grip on her axe tighter than it had ever been before. Byleth stopped her charging towards the beast as Edelgard began hers, and before she knew it, the weapon had been ripped from her grip and thrown into the pond like it didn't weigh half her body weight. The dragon flapped its spike-tipped wings in agitation, sending Byleth running towards it once more.

"Byleth!" Edelgard's voice cracked as she screeched; _she was dead for sure_! "Byleth, get away from it! _Run_!"

But the mercenary did not change direction. Rather, she skidded to a stop in front of the creature, grabbed it by the horns protruding downwards from its head, and forced it to the ground. The heiress' mouth dried with fear at the sight of it - surely not _arousal_ because of the woman's brute strength, she surely _wasn't_admiring those rippled muscles - but the dragon's talons didn't come up to shred Byleth's soft belly like she was expecting. Rather, it acquiesced to her request and shuffled behind the woman as she turned back to the quivering heiress, her hands on her hips.

"You can't scare her like that." 

Edelgard almost barked a laugh at the absurdity of the sentence. "_I_scared _her_?!" She paused. "...Who is _her_?"

Byleth scratched the back of her neck, almost sheepishly. "Edelgard, Sothis." She looked from dragon to human. "Sothis, Edelgard."

Sothis let out a low growl at the introduction, raising on her back legs once more to place one of her giant claws onto the mercenary's shoulder. Byleth seemed unfazed.

The heiress huffed a weak laugh, stumbling back and almost tripping over her own feet. Her face transformed into something akin to dread - was that a hint of triumph? - as she turned and fled as fast as her feet would take her.

Byleth shot a look over at the dragon, who had curled her scaly lips into a smirk. "We're dead, you know that?" Sothis ignored her, moving to trot back to the trees where she was napping. 

"Where do you think you're going?"

()

Edelgard couldn't believe what she'd just seen. No, that was a lie. She believed it, alright, her brain just refused to process it. How could the quiet mercenary, the one she'd seen returning lost items or spending hours fishing at the pond, be able to tame a dragon? One of humans' swore enemies for generations now?

She made to hop over a log, but something wrapped itself around her midsection. Letting out a startled screech, she was carried up, up, up and into the sky. Her arms wrapped around whatever was carrying her - muscular and scaly, she noted with no small hint of terror - and stayed that way until she was forcefully dropped on a branch, which bent to the ground as Sothis landed on it like a large bird.

Edelgard didn't even have to look up to know who was riding the monstrosity. "Byleth! Get me _down_from here!"

"I cannot." Came her reply. "I cannot until you promise not to tell anyone about Sothis. Not even Hubert."

"And why wouldn't I do it?! You're on a _dragon_, for goddess' sake!"

There was a pause. "...I thought I might come to this. Here, take my hand." Edelgard looked up form her death-grip on the branch to see Byleth's outstretched palm. She looked from it, to the ground, and then back to it. "Come here. Let me show you."

Sighing heavily, she kept a wary eye on the dragon as she took the appendage and allowed herself to be pulled onto the reptile, with no small reluctance. "Just - just get me down from here."

Byleth nodded. "Alright. Sothis, down. Gently."

At the sight of the dragon raising its great leathery wings, Edelgard let out an embarrassing squeak and clung tightly to the woman's back. A rather good decision, judging by what happened next.

Sothis raised her wings, and launched herself rather violently from the branch. The heiress screamed at the sudden movement, almost choking Byleth with her grip as she buried her face into her soft navy hair. 

"Sothis?!" She heard Byleth shout as she leaned forward, which only made her grip tighter. "What is wrong with you!?" She turned her head and tried to alleviate Edelgard's worries. "I apologize, she's not usually like this - "

Sothis cut her off by folding her wings and dropping from the sky, and Edelgard's screeching began anew. They dove into the deep river before them, no doubt shocking some of the merchants below. Byleth was screaming something over the rush of wind in her ears, but she couldn't make it out through the haze of fear.

They shot up and leveled out, before Sothis' wings tucked again and they dropped. Edelgard could have been cutting off Byleth's circulation from how tight her hold was around the woman's midsection, but she couldn't bring herself to care at the moment.

"And now the spinning," Byleth said as the dragon began to rotate, "Thank you for nothing, you useless reptile."

"Okay! Okay!" Edelgard gasped from her position on Byleth's back, "I'm sorry! I am sorry! Just get me off of this thing!"

Abruptly, Sothis leveled out just before they hit the water again, and soared into a patch of trees. Byleth made a noise of surprise, but the heiress didn't notice until the wind lessened enough to not squint through. Her grip laxed as she opened her eyes, and gasped.

During their flight, the sky had turned a soft pink, and clouds plumed along the surface like the puffy candy she'd seen at the occasional fair. The land below them was turning a soft gold in the evening light, and the river reflected it softly. She panted and tried to regain her composure as she took in the sights around her, and became hyper-aware of the way she had been clinging to the woman's back.

"Sorry - I'm sorry," she stuttered, cheeks flushing as she pulled back. 

However, Byleth's hand caught her retreating wrist and tugged it back around her ribs. "You need to hang on. We'll be landing at the monastery soon, and well..." She turned her head to the side to look at the heiress. Her lips were curled into an almost serene, gentle smile. Edelgard found herself staring at her mouth, before it moved again. "...Let's just say that the landings there aren't... light, to say the least."

"I - yes, of course." Byleth's hand - which hadn't lifted from hers around her midsection during the conversation - was cool, almost unnaturally so, but comforting. Surely more comfortable than her sweaty hand, which was making itself aware to Edelgard far more than she would have liked. "I... apologize, truly, for not staying and listening instead of running away. It was wrong of me to do so, and - "

She could hear the amused lilt in Byleth's voice as she interrupted. "Haven't you apologized enough? Don't worry, Edelgard. As long as you keep it a secret, that's fine with me."

"Oh - of course, of course." She was certain that her ears had gone crimson along with the rest of her face. "Your secret is safe with me."

Byleth hummed, thinking. "Well, if you know about it, isn't it our secret now?"

"W-Why yes, I suppose it is."

A pause. "...That's good. It was getting rather tedious to sneak out on my own. Now at least I have an excuse if you go with me. We could say we're going into town together."

Edelgard mustered up a chuckle. "Yes, I suppose we could. Dorothea would tease me heavily, though..."

"What was that?"

"Nothing!"

The rest of the ride was spent in comfortable silence, and Edelgard felt bold enough to squeeze the woman a little tighter - not fear-tight, but just enough. They came in for a rougher landing than the heiress would have liked in a clearing near the monastery, and her legs wobbled as her feet hit the ground. She would have stumbled if the mercenary hadn't put a steady hand on her shoulder. Despite it being cold, it left a tingly-warm touch when she removed it.

Before clambering back on the dragon, Byleth said, "Again, Edelgard, thank you for allowing me to share my secret... even if it was done rather unintentionally."

Edelgard chuckled. "I thank you for preventing Sothis from eating me, as then you wouldn't have anyone to tell the secret too."

They smiled at each other for a second; the night became warmer, softer. After a moment, Byleth's arm came to point in the direction of the school. "It's just a five minute walk. I trust you can make your way back?"

"Of course, Byleth." She hesitated, before she clenched her fists and strode towards the mercenary. Her breath ghosted over her cheek, before she pressed a quick peck to the woman's cheek. Byleth went still as she pulled back, a flush spreading from the tips of her ears all the way down to her toes. "I - I should get going."

Byleth said nothing, but as Edelgard turned to flee, she caught sight of her pressing a hand to where her lips touched her cheek. 

Then there was a yelp as Sothis smacked her into the ground with her tail.

**Author's Note:**

> hmu on Tumblr with head canons @alilbitofawriter


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